Julie Thornton (Runner-Up) is a senior at Kansas State University. She
will receive Bachelor's degrees in Computer Science and in Mathematics in May
2003.

Julie has contributed to multiple fields in computer science. She has
developed and implemented, and has worked on performance evaluation for,
sampling algorithms for Bayesian networks. She has worked on computer-aided
instruction, creating a critiquing module for a tutoring system for college
algebra. And she is currently helping geology faculty by working on using the
Fourier transform to rescale digital images to lower resolutions. In her work on
designing and implementing sampling-based approximation algorithms for Bayesian
networks, she implemented a system, augmented the system with a new adaptive
importance sampling design, and instrumented a full suite of experimental tools.
She has co-authored two AAAI 2002 student posters, a paper at the 2002 Genetic
Evolutionary Computation Conference, and a journal article in preparation.

Julie has served as a lab instructor at Kansas State, teaching classes and
training instructors in college algebra, intermediate algebra, and general
chemistry. She was awarded research assistantships in both the Department of
Mathematics and the Department of Computer Science at Kansas State. Julie
co-advised two graduate-student project groups. She has received numerous
academic honors and scholarships, including a 2002-03 CRA Collaborative
Experience for Women (CREW) award. She has volunteered to help children in a
number of programs.